FOX was on a roll, doing a superb job of covering the 2006 World Series. Heck, not until the first pitch to the second batter in Game 1 did Fox, yet again, begin to treat us like idiots.

The first pitch to No. 2 batter Chris Duncan, Saturday, was a Justin Verlander changeup, one that on the screen registered 76 mph. Yet, Fox couldn’t wait to show it in a replay – in slow motion, a slow-motion replay of a 76 mph changeup!

And then, because Fox was stuck presenting an idiot’s delight replay, it missed the second pitch to Duncan!

Ahh, but it was that kind of TV night. Come October, there is no other kind. What’s viewed by some as baseball in HD is presented to all as baseball in ADD.

In the top of the fourth, right after Tim McCarver noted that Verlander has a good move to first, Fox cut to a so-what dugout shot of Tony LaRussa – thus missing a Verlander pickoff throw to first. Fox later would miss another pickoff attempt because it was off wandering around.

Speaking of Verlander, Fox’s radar graphic had his fastball consistently clocking 90 mph. During the playoffs, Fox had him at 98. With all that rest, he lost eight mph on his fastball?

And speaking of pitches, can’t Fox change-up that AOS Sharpe TV commercial, the one in which Fergusson pushes his tee shot into the rough and no one can see it except the TV audience? The first three times, it was clever. The next 212 times it kinda loses something.

But that Fox baseball field level-view camera, often used just to be used, is sure a fabulous waste of good time and money, ain’t it?

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As we’ve several times noted, in turning its “Mike & Mike Show” morning simulcast into silly guy talk and a Disney/ESPN/ABC promote-a-thon, ESPN removed much of the show’s promise.

That was underscored last week when Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, instead of chatting with ESPNers about the FIU-Miami riot, interviewed UM president Donna Shalala, producing an important segment as Shalala, claiming to be disgusted by the episode, also sounded to be in denial.

Shalala spoke of the riot as a standalone event, as if Miami had no history of such conduct. She also sounded both vigilant and defiant when she said that Miami’ players – she kept referring to them only as “students” – were now under orders not leave the sideline, even to aid a teammate “who’s being stomped.”

She added that UM players face “serious probation.” Really? What other kinds of probation does Miami have?

That session sure beat the usual sessions with anyone and everyone about anything and everything coming up on ESPN and ABC.

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ESPN2 sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards, Saturday, told how Pitt’s H.B. Blades wore a Rutgers T-shirt following Pitt’s loss to RU, last season, and how Blades used that to fire up his teammates for this one vs. RU. Great story. Except it was the second quarter and Pitt was losing, 3-0.

ABC’s Bob Davie, Saturday, kept calling Texas QB Colt McCoy a “young freshman.” If that seems redundant, it wasn’t. It was just wrong. McCoy, a red-shirt, is 20; he’s an old freshman.

In May, Westwood One Radio took heat for dropping longtime ND football voice Tony Roberts in favor of Don Criqui. But – and predictably – there is no more heat as radiocasts of ND football, heard here over WFAN and with Criqui at the wheel, have vastly improved.

ESPN 1050’s Stephen A. Smith last week went on a repulsive, women-objectifying guy-talk/low-talk riff on the body type he finds essential in the women he pursues. He does that a lot – when he’s not condemning racial insensitivity.

Don’t know which was worse, the Tennessee player giving throat slash gestures, Saturday, or CBS’s Gary Danielson giving it the no-big-deal treatment. For what it’s worth, this was supposed to be UT’s cleaned-up team from last season’s arrest-loaded crew. The Knoxville Police Dept. now has a liaison officer assigned specifically to the football team.

Ex-Bear DL Tim Ryan, Fox analyst on yesterday’s Lions-Jets, is another guy who doesn’t even think to qualify stats; he just recites them, circumstance-free, then attaches them to simplistic, erroneous conclusions.

Yesterday during Fox’s second game – Colts-Redskins – with Peyton Manning helmetless and lying momentarily stunned on the field, we wondered how many thousands of NFL fantasy leaguers were momentarily thrilled.